


Star Crossed

by onearmedmechanic



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blackmail, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Married Couple, Memory Alteration, Mild Smut, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:38:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onearmedmechanic/pseuds/onearmedmechanic
Summary: After Jack died Rhys inherited the Hyperion empire but given the climate at hyperion there were others who wanted to usurp his power. In a moment of grief over his dead husband Rhys had his memory wiped and he was transplanted back onto the food chain of Hyperion as a data miner. Something in rhys had always strived for greatness and he had felt a connection to Handsome Jack having no memory of his life before then or with Handsome Jack.In the aftermath of his trip to Pandora and his dealings with the Handsome Jack AI the Hyperion higher-ups are scrambling to get Rhys back to Helios and get Jack out of his head before either of them remember who they really are. Only, it’s much too late for that.Done for the Rhack Big Bang 2019 - in collaboration with my lovely artists!adiamondpony.tumblr.com or @onediamondpony on twitter & borderlandstrashfire on TumblrChapters to be updated every Monday & Friday





	1. Mutiny

“Why don’t we just kill him?” Vasquez questioned as the room of executives planned. Hidden far away from the cameras that mapped every inch of Helios. Well, nearly every inch. That’s why they were hiding in a damn Loaderbot™ hanger. 

“Are you crazy?” Henderson scowled, crossing his arms. “This plan is crazy enough! Do you know what will happen if he finds out we’re trying to stage a mutiny? We’re as good as dead.” 

“I disagree, Saul,” Hausman - the head of marketing - spoke up, “Rhys might have been married to him, but he is _not_ Handsome Jack.” 

“Handsome Jack or not Hyperion is his now.” Henderson countered with a frown. 

“Has anyone even seen him since the funeral? No. That’s because he’s vulnerable.” Garcia the lead security officer pointed out. “This is the perfect time to strike. I for one am not going to let a snot-nosed little brat from data mining take control of this company.” That elicited a few grumbling sounds of agreement from the six other executives in the room. 

“How do we even know this is going to work? This science is shoddy at best. What if he gets his memory back?” Jeffers from R&D fidgeted. 

“We’ll need someone to keep an eye on him, then.” Yvette noted. 

“Why don’t we just kill him _after_ we wipe his memory?” Vasquez grumbled. 

“It will be so much more humiliating to watch that little brat scramble at the bottom of the food chain. We won’t have to worry about him if he’s under our boots. And besides even if he gets his memory back, there will be no way for him to get Hyperion back.” Feathers, the head of sales, chided with a greedy grin. 

“Whether or not we kill him, we will have to move fast. This _has_ to take place before he makes the announcement that he’s taking over Jack’s throne.” Yvette said, leaning up against the leg of one of the loaderbots. 

“Why?” Jeffers frowned, anxiously. Everything this guy did was anxious.” 

“Because then no one will ask questions. Jack pulled this kind of shit all the time.” She snapped. Yvette knew Rhys, liked him even. But this was bullshit. Why should he get Jack’s wealth? Why should he get his Empire? At least with this plan it was fair game. Hyperion was a dog-eat-dog world and you don’t turn away a chance to take out the alpha.

“Where would we put him? I'm sure we can’t erase his whole life.” Henderson said skeptically as his index finger fiddled with the end of his mustache. 

“If we did we would just have a bigger problem on our hands. We only take out the time he had with Jack.” Yvette had thought about this plan. She just needed people to back her up. “He was in data mining when he started out. Thats a good place to start. It’s a big department easy to get lost in. He would just fade into the wallpaper with all the other code monkeys.” 

“But why are we keeping him on Helios? Isn’t that just tempting fate?” Vasquez asked and Yvette resisted the urge to hit him. 

“If we keep him on Helios, we can control what he remembers. We won’t run the risk of anything triggering memories. Plus if we think he’s thawing out, we just drag him back to R&D and blast him again.” Yvette had thought of everything. “I’ll keep an eye on him myself.” 

“I think we’re in agreement.” Garcia insinuated, her hand resting on her gun. They all wanted to be done with this conversation. 

“All in favor?” Seven hands in the air. 

“All opposed?” No hands. 

Okay. Now to execute the plan. 

\---

“What are you doing!?” Rhys screamed as he was dragged down the silent halls of Helios by a pair of loader bots. 

Five out of the seven executives were waiting in the operating room while Yvette and Garcia accompanied the loaderbots with their captive down to deck 13. 

Rhys had been lifted off the ground, his bare feet kicking angrily as he tried desperately to escape the iron grip of the loader bots. He was in his pajamas, they had reprogrammed Rhys’ loaderbot guards to drag him out of his bed, meeting the executives outside of the CEO’s penthouse. 

“You’ll all pay for this!” Rhys growled, spitting angrily as one of the loaders drifted a little too close to Garcia and Rhys managed to claw her with his cybernetic claws, leaving four neat cuts down the side of her cheek. 

The head of security screeched, drawing her gun before Yvette put a hand on her shoulder and giving her a stern look. 

“This is for your own good, Rhys.” Yvette said to the CEO as Garcia put her gun away.

“Like hell!” Rhys snarled, looking downright dangerous. “Let me down and you’ll see how good I am.” 

“You have no power here, Mister CEO.” Garcia growled as she punched the button to activate the elevator. She grabbed his face, gripping his chin hard enough to make the young man wince. “There’s _no one_ coming to save you. Jack is dead.” 

For a moment there was a fleeting look of fear in Rhys eyes before he reared back and kicked Garcia hard in the chest, knocking her against the wall of the elevator. 

“So help me if i get out of this I am going to _watch_ the life leave your body.” Rhys growled. Fixing his gaze on the two of them. 

“Rhys. stop embarrassing yourself.” Yvette turned her frown on Rhys. “There’s nothing you can do. Just surrender.” 

“Over my dead body.” Rhys spat in Yvette’s face. “You’ll never get away with this.” 

“We already have.” Yvette’s voice was cold as the elevator opened on deck 13. 

Rhys was slammed down on the metal table hard enough to make him see stars. When he opened his eyes he saw all 7 Hyperion department heads, all of them looking down at him as he was strapped down to the table.

“Why are you doing this?!” He was far too scared to be brave any more. It was clear they weren’t going to kill him. He just didn’t know what was worse than killing him. There was movement down by his foot and he craned his head up only for it to be pushed back down by Yvette’s hand. 

“If it’s money you want, I’ll give you money.” His hands were shaking. 

“We’re too far past the point of bargaining, Rhys.” Vasquez’s deep warbling voice reached his ears. 

“Oh please,” Rhys scoffed, “everyone has a price.” 

“This price is a little too steep for you, Mister CEO.” Henderson 

“Bullshit! Let me out of this!! That is an _order_!” Rhys yelled. He was reaching the end of his rope as he felt something cold and foreign be plugged in to the port at his temple, he flinched at the feeling, jerking off the table. 

“You’re in no position to give orders Rhys.” Another voice said. Rhys pulled on his restraints but the leather straps had been buckled too tightly for any give. 

“Please… please don’t do this!!” Tears were coming to his eyes. 

Oh god. Why was this happening to him? He was only 27. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want this. He wanted Jack. He had just lost Jack. Jack was dead. Why couldn’t they understand? His husband had just _died!!_ All alone somewhere on pandora. Shot to pieces by Vault Hunters. Far far away and alone where no one could help him. Now Rhys’ fate was the same. Betrayed by his own employees. He was going to die alone here on the deck of his space station. No one was going to help him.

“Please. Please.” Rhys chanted, struggling so hard they had to hold him down. “I don’t want this! Let me go!” 

“This isn’t about what you want.” Another voice said, a different one. Just as cold. 

“Let. Me. _Go_.” Oh god, someone should have heard him screaming. He wanted Jack. “Let me go!!!” Rhys screamed again, crying full force now. 

He felt the needle go into his arm and he screamed again. _“Jack!!”_ Rhys shouted for a ghost. Spilled his tears for a dead man. His whole body ached for his dead husband. 

There was one thing he heard before he lost consciousness. 

_“Jack is gone.”_

And then the world went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this wonderful piece was done by Camille!! @onediamondpony on twitter or adiamondpony.tumblr.com


	2. Swimming Against Fate

“Hey bro, you wanna grab lunch?” Vaughn poked his head into Rhys’ cubicle. 

“Sure bro, give me one sec.” Rhys finished typing up the next line of code before pressing execute and getting up. “Oh man, I feel like I’ve been behind that desk for weeks.” he stretched before shrugging on his vest and following Vaughn off the floor. As they passed the unit managers door he heard a shout. 

“Rhys! Have you got the-” The managers always seemed to be biting his head off for things, even though he always got his projects in ahead of time and they were never bugged. 

“It’s already in your inbox, sir.” Rhys nodded, “I'm taking my lunch break.” 

“Don’t be late. Mr. Somerset.” He reminded Rhys sternly.

“I never am.” Rhys affirmed before heading into the elevator where Vaughn was waiting. “Man, I wonder if I actually did something wrong or if all of them just hate me.” 

“What makes you say that?” Vaughn questioned, pressing the button for the Hub of Heroism. 

“Well, He keeps yelling at me for shit I haven’t done and this morning I was walking by Garcia and she just walked right into me like I wasn’t there. I had to change my shirt because she spilled her coffee all over me. When did she get that scar?” Rhys rambled absentmindedly as the elevator rocketed skywards. “It’s your turn to pick where we eat.” 

“I'm in the mood for tacos.” Vaughn picked at a stray thread on his vest. 

“Ooh tacos sound great.” Rhys agreed as the door opened the hub was busy, it usually was around lunch hour so it wasn’t a surprise and the line for the taco stand wasn’t too unbearably long. They had settled down in their regular seats when a girl from data mining came by, she had blonde hair and brown eyes. 

“Hey Rhys,” She winked at him as she passed by carrying a tray of a half-eaten salad and winked at him. 

“Oh hey Stacey.” Rhys waved politely but didn’t smile. 

“So?” Vaughn lifted his eyebrows 

“Huh?” Rhys looked up from his quesadilla.

“Stacey, she seems to be into you. You gonna take a shot at her?” Vaughn prompted. 

“Oh I don’t think so.” Rhys shook his head. 

“Rhys. You’ve turned down the last three people who’ve asked you out. At this point i'm staging an intervention.” Vaughn sat back in his chair to examine his best friend. 

“Why?” Rhys frowned, “So what? I don’t want to date anyone right now,”

“Why don’t you want to date anyone?” 

“I don’t know…” Rhys looked up, coincidentally right at one of the many commemorative posters of Handsome Jack. “It just feels… wrong.” 

“Dude…” 

“It sounds crazy i know… i'm just not ready.” Rhys looked away from the poster, back down at his food. 

“Take your time bro, you’ll get there.” Vaughn reached across the table to pat his best friend on the shoulder. “Hey, Yvette’s coming over for movie night tonight. It’s her turn to pick the movie.” 

“Okay cool.” Rhys nodded. He could explain it, but talking about dating had rattled him. There was something in his chest that ached. 

He and vaughn talked for a little longer and then Rhys went back to work, a whole half hour earlier than he was supposed to and he still got yelled at. He just sighed and sat back down at his cubicle, going back to his line of code. 

\---

Rhys opened the door to his and Vaughns shared apartment. He and vaughn have always shared a place but for some reason lately, it didn’t feel like home anymore. It was just a place where all of his things were. 

“You’re late bro! We started the movie already.” Vaughn got up and went to the kitchen where Rhys was pulling a beer out of the fridge. 

“Oh sorry, Summers kept me late.” Rhys’ shoulders drooped. He could alreadyimagine to look of scathing disappointment on Yvette’s face. He was dreading it. 

“Oh man, again? I'm sorry bro?” vaughn frowned, putting a hand on Rhys’ shoulder. 

“Its okay, at least I got paid overtime.” Rhys shrugged. He was just totally drained. “I'm really not in the mood for a movie right now, I think i'm just gonna hit the sack.” 

“Okay, get some rest bro.” Vaughn gave his friend a sympathetic look and patted him on the shoulder. 

“Hey ‘vette.” Rhys nodded towards her before unlocking his bedroom door. 

“Oh hey, Rhys.” Yvette looked up from the movie as Rhys’ bedroom door swung shut. 

Vaughn counted to ten and between 6 and 7 Rhys’ favorite album started playing from the speakers in his room. Vaughn sat down beside Yvette, arms crossed and back straight, a grimace on his face. 

“What crawled up your butt?” Yvette elbowed him. 

“I know this is part of the keeping an eye on him but this whole revenge schtick is getting old. It’s been three months, Yvette.” Vaughn looked over at her. 

“I have no idea what you mean.” She kept her eyes on the rom com playing on their big tv. 

“You know exactly what i mean.” Vaughn scowled. He was about three seconds from kicking her out. “If you’re going to be a bitch about this then just get out.” 

“Hey, i'm just following orders.” Yvette glanced off the subject, never taking her eyes off the movie. 

“Orders my ass. Someone  _ told _ Summers to ride him like this, and if he keeps going like this he’s going to burn out.” 

“It’s what he deserves.” Yvette frowned, her voice getting an edge. 

“No one deserves this.” Vaughn growled. “ _ Think _ about what you’re saying Yvette. His husband died, he was kidnapped out of his bed in the middle of the night and in the span of one hour he lost the only thing Jack left him, and all of the memories he had of the love of his life. Now he’s a nameless data miner in a sea of people that hate him. And he has  _ no idea _ why.” 

“That’s the whole point.” Yvette finally looked at him. “Rhys didn’t deserve what Jack gave him. Jack was a legend. Rhys is  _ nobody _ . He wasn’t fit to run this company.” 

“And you think you are?” Vaughn kept his voice low, he still had to protect Rhys. “You’re just a greedy bitch who sold out your best friend when his heart was broken. Get out.” 

“Do you really want me to get out?” Yvette stood, her voice gaining a really dangerous edge. “You know what will happen if you try and get the old Rhys back.” 

“Relax, I'm not suicidal. I know how to keep my mouth shut. Just tell Summers to back off. Rhys is going to wonder why everyone hates him, he’s smart. Smarter than you. He  _ will _ figure it out.” 

“I’ll tell them to back off.” Yvette nodded. “You just keep him ignorant and stupid. Try and get him a girlfriend.” 

“Sure thing boss.” Vaughn frowned as Yvette left, the door shutting quietly behind her, he could hear her heeled shoes click off down the hallway. Vaughn turned off the TV and dropped his head into his hands. 

\---

Rhys was dreaming. In the last few months his sleep had been fitful and he always woke up feeling more tired than when he went to bed, but he was  _ finally _ dreaming. 

It was strange. He was lying in a bed, but it wasn’t his bed. It was lavish and huge. The expensive sheets were soft against his bare back which was odd because he was sure he’d gone to sleep with his pajamas on… but in his dream he was naked. There were more expensive sheets covering his… unmentionables. But it was obvious that he was naked. 

Oh and he wasn’t alone. 

“You sleep okay, starshine?” The other person padded out of a room that Rhys couldn’t see and his jaw dropped. 

Standing before him in nothing but a towel was…  _ Handsome Jack. _

“Oh my god.” Rhys whispered quietly to himself. 

“I like the compliment, but you can call me Jack.” Handsome Jack smiled, his hair was wet and flopping down in front of his face. Rhys felt the urge to reach up and tuck that errant lock of hair back into place and then like he had no control over his own limbs Rhys actually did that. 

Jack chuckled, catching his hand and pressing a soft kiss to the center of his flesh palm, his lips were surreal, the smooth texture of the mask and his chin hinge warmed by the water from his shower. It all felt so real. 

“So what do you say, princess… you up for round two?” 

“Round two?” Rhys frowned. Jack laughed again before dropping his towel and climbing into bed alongside the younger man, Handsome Jack pulled the thin sheets away from Rhys’ naked body and Rhys gasped at the sight, hickeys and love bites littered his stomach and hips, upon closer inspection Jack even had a few of his own up and down his neck. 

“Yeah, baby.” Jack grinned, leaning closer to kiss Rhys’ neck. Rhys gasped at the sensation and his hand touched Jack’s shoulder. “It is our vacation isn’t it?” 

“Okay.” Rhys moaned. 

“Is that a yes?” Jack laughed again, Rhys could feel his breath ghost across his collarbone 

“ _ Yes _ .” Rhys nodded. Something about this just felt  _ right _ . He couldn’t explain it. This was so familiar, like he had been here before. 

Jack reached down to take Rhys in his broad palm and Rhys whimpered at the sensation. 

“ _ There _ we go, kitten. You just relax. Relax for daddy.” Jack praised and Rhys melted. 

Everything was so nice, so real, he could imagine the way Jack smelled, like cedarwood shampoo and mint. 

Everything about him was perfect, from the way he moved, to the way he smiled, and he was so  _ so _ careful about getting his mask hinges caught in Rhys’ hair or on his skin. He was gorgeous. 

Jack opened him up with steady hands that acted like they had done  _ this _ a thousand times, like Rhys was the only person in the world worthy of Jacks attention and when Jack finally slid into the young man Rhys gripped his shoulders, fingernails raking across his back like he never wanted Jack to leave. 

_ “Jack!” _ Rhys cried his name out and came hard. Unfortunately he also woke up. Alone. In his bedroom. In his pajamas. 

“Dammit.” Rhys cursed and got out of bed to change his now soiled pajamas, the ghost of Jacks lips still lingering on his neck and his fingers still wrapped around Rhys’ wrist like they were meant to be there. 

But they weren’t. It was just a dream. 

Jack was dead. 

Rhys never even got to meet him.

Rhys fell back asleep with a sad feeling in his chest, even though he had no idea why. 

\---

“Hey Rhys, you okay bro?” Vaughn spoke to him and Rhys realized that he’d just been pushing his cereal around in the bowl and hadn’t eaten a bite of it. 

“I didn’t sleep well last night. Bad dream.” Rhys lied. He still felt those hands on his body, even hours later. The way they trailed over his skin, like it belonged to both of them. He knew everything about Rhys without speaking a single word. 

It was like love. 

“I should get going. I don’t want to be late.” Rhys stood, dumping his uneaten cereal into the sink and grabbing his messenger bag, trying to push the dream out of his mind and focus on today’s projects. He was going to be running through some Pandoran financial ledgers, what people liked what they didn’t, how they can use it to market similar products. 

It was a big job. If he was lucky it would keep him distracted. 

\---

Now, things were good while they lasted but trouble was in the air. 

Rhys had always been too smart for his own good and after things loosened up at the request of Vaughn, it wasn’t hard for Rhys to climb the ladder all the way out of data mining. In fact after another month, Rhys was all lined up for a promotion. 

“This is bad.” Yvette frowned across the table at Vasquez. “We need to keep a lid on this.” 

“If i'm looking at this right, this will put him right under Henderson.” Vasquez scanned the paperwork Yvette had lifted from Processing. “That is bad news.” 

“There’s no way Henderson can be trusted with Rhys. That lazy fuck is bound to let something slip.” Yvette groaned. 

“I’ll handle Henderson, you just make sure Rhys doesn’t hit any snags on his way up. I’ll make sure he doesn’t climb any higher.” Vasquez said. 

“Okay, I’ll get him up to your office.” Yvette nodded. 

“How long do we have?” 

“I managed to push it back a bit by getting him in trouble but he solved the problem quicker than i thought and it only put him back in favor. We only have a few weeks at worst and another month at best.” 

“You don’t think we should consult with the rest of them?” Vasquez asked handing the documents back to Yvette. 

“And let Henderson know we don’t trust him? No way. It’ll only bring trouble.” Yvette shook her head, taking the papers and hiding them away. “Don’t do anything stupid, Hugo. We can’t risk him.” 

“I understand.” Vasquez slicked back his hair, “when did this little shitstick become such a problem?” 

“The moment Jack put a ring on his finger.” Yvette pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“Speaking of, have we found it yet?” Hugo arched a thick eyebrow. 

“No. We suspect it’s hidden in the penthouse.” She sighed, “But we still have no way to gain access to it.” 

“I saw it once. At a gala. Rhys was… showing it off.” Vasquez suppressed a groan. “It’s veined with Eridium.” 

“Of course it is.” She barked out a cynical laugh. “Well, i have to get back to work.” 

\---

“You got this bro.” Vaughn patted Rhys on the back. 

His promotion had been pushed back a few months, due to complications that Vaughn highly suspected that Yvette was guilty of. But she was at least  _ acting _ happy for Rhys. 

He was doing better, he didn’t seem so lost and he could safely look at a picture of Handsome Jack without the urge to burst into tears. 

“If i'm moving up, we’re all moving up.” Rhys smiled as he said the phrase and Vaughn was struck with a disturbing sense of deja vu. 

Rhys had said that to him the first time he stood in front of the elevator to Jack’s office:

_ “If i'm moving up we’re all moving up.”  _ Rhys had smiled, that corporate grin plastered on in front of his nerves. He had looked so nervous, straightening his tie and smoothing down his hair. Vaughn had told him he was going to be fine. And he was. He was more than fine. 

And when Rhys had showed off his first hickey and then much later his ring, he was going to be fine. He had that same amount of nerves when he stood at the end of the altar with Jack. but he had smiled and the light spilled out and it was glorious. 

And now, with no memory of that other Rhys, here he stood again, saying those same exact words. And Vaughn’s heart nearly broke in two. 

“Alright, now go in there and get that promotion.” Vaughn clapped Rhys on the shoulder as the automatic doors slid open but when he stepped into the office that smile dropped off his face. 

Something was off. 

“Mr… Henderson?”

“Have a seat Rhys, I’ll just be a second.” came the low warbling voice of someone that was clearly not henderson. 

Rhys had a feeling he knew who they were when he crossed the large office, the nameplate on the desk coming into view. Rhys’ heart stopped. 

Hugo Vasquez. Senior Vice President of Securities Propaganda. 

Oh shit. This was not good. 

He finished up his phone call and turned, and Rhys was staring into the greasy bearded face of his nemesis Vasquez. 

“You look surprised to see me. This all came together quick, so you might not have been in the loop.” 

“Where’s Henderson?” Rhys asked, looking around. 

“Oh uh, he stepped down.” Vasquez smiled in a cruel imitation of a smile. “You’re going to be reporting to me now, Rhys.” 

“But I-” Rhys spoke up but he was interrupted. 

“Don’t worry about that little promotion that’s still coming your way, kiddo.” Hugo smirked, something about the nickname was familiar, although it felt wrong coming out of Hugo’s mouth. 

“Oh well that’s a relief-” another interruption. Man, could this guy get any more dickish? 

“But that’s not important, what’s important is your future in this company.” Vasquez stood. "Look... you wanna know why I'm in that chair... and you're not? For the exact same reason why North is North, why the handsome guy always gets the girl, and why every spaceship in the universe is shaped like a cock. It's  _ destiny _ , Rhys." Vasquez crossed his arms. “And bad things can happen when you swim against fate.” 

A little flicker of movement in the background caught his eye and Rhys’ jaw dropped. He felt the urge to throw up. 

Henderson’s lifeless body floated listlessly in space behind the massive window taking up the entire rear wall. Rhys watched it, toning Vasquez out as he had to fight the urge to puke. 

“Oh wow. I could not have timed that better, that helps dramatically make my point.” Rhys had to tear his gaze away from the corpse floating in space to look back at Vasquez. 

“This promotion is going to take you out of the way of other people’s destiny and put you on your own path.” before Vasquez could finish his sentence his phone rang. He answered the call without any regard for Rhys. 

“Vasquez. Its August.” a male voice on the other line said. 

“Listen, I’ve got you on spea-” 

“Are you buying this vault key or what?” Vasquez couldn’t get the call off of the speaker and into his personal echo fast enough, and Rhys heard it loud and clear. 

_ What _ ? A vault key? 

“Ten million? Thats a lot of cheese August- yes of course I'm still interested. That’s just a lot of money to get together so soon- Yes i'm near a computer.” Vasquez clicked around on the other side of the monitor. Before walking away to talk where Rhys couldn’t hear. 

A vault key. Hyperion would kill for a vault key. With another glance at Henderson’s floating body it became clear that Hyperion already had. 

Son of a bitch. 

Rhys had to see that Vault Key. It could mean that he would skyrocket up on the ladder. And Vasquez didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve this office. 

Rhys activated his echoeye discreetly and scanned the computer. 

Ooh the file was encrypted. Finally something fun. He downloaded it and ran it through his decryption program, it barely took half a second before he was scanning through the Vault key file. It was nice, pretty even. 

“I’ll be there in a few hours…. It’s a gift shop. By a mug or something. Say hi to your mom for me.” He sleazed and then hung up. Rhys closed his palm interface, shutting off his eye. 

“So where were we… before we were so… rudely interrupted.” 

“I think we were talking about my promotion.” 

“Henderson was a fool, he didn’t learn lesson number one.  _ Humility _ , but you… I can see you’re moving up in the world. And i respect you Rhys,”  _ here it comes _ , “That’s why i'm promoting you to Senior Vice… Janitor.” the floor dropped out from underneath him.

“What?!” Rhys stood up, something beyond anger lighting in his veins. “You can’t do this to me!” 

“I'm the boss Rhys, I can do whatever I want.” 

Something happened that felt like instinct. Rhys went from being pissed to being dangerous. 

“You better get an eye installed in the back of your head, Vasquez.” Rhys pointed his finger at the bearded man and for a split second Hugo looked scared. “Because you’re going to need to watch your back.” Rhys threatened, a scowl darkening his features. 

Rhys didn’t even see his hand move before it collided with his face, blood spilled from his nose as he dropped like a bag of hot rocks. 

“I'm your boss now, Rhys. Get used to it.” Vasquez grumbled as Rhys got up, wiping the blood from his nose. 

“Oh you’re so going to pay for this.” Rhys turned and stalked towards the door. 

“Uh huh, sure. Yeah I’ll let you know when i need my trash emptied.” Vasquez called after him and Rhys was just shaking with rage. 

Vaughn met him outside with an agape expression. 

“What… just happened?” 

“I just got fucked. Thats what happened. Vasquez just fucked me over.” Rhys was still dangerously angry. He wanted to strangle someone. He wanted to strangle Vasquez. 

“He can’t do this!” Vaughn exclaimed. 

“He just did.” Rhys was not going to let himself be defeated. But he also wasn’t going to become a fucking  _ janitor _ . 

“Hey boys, how did the promotion go?” Yvette sauntered up, luckily right before Rhys turned around to march right back in there and throw Vasquez out into space. 

Her expression changed when she saw Rhys. Similar to how Vasquez looked when Rhys threatened him. Again it was only for a split second, but she looked scared, like she recognized something. 

“It didn’t.” 

“What do you mean it didn’t?” She frowned, casting a glance at the door. “Where’s Henderson?” 

“Oh yeah him, he’s dead.” Rhys deadpanned. Yvette looked like it was her turn to throw up.

“Vasquez threw him out an airlock!” Vaughn was almost as angry as Rhys was. Almost. 

“Henderson’s dead?” Yvette had to take a step back in disbelief. 

“What are we gonna do?” Vaughn was talking to Yvette but Rhys answered instead.

“We’re gonna steal his deal.” The two of them shot him identical looks of confusion. Rhys resisted the urge to groan. “Vasquez set up a deal on Pandora for a Vault Key.” 

“A vault key? Are you kidding?” Vaughn’s eyebrows jumped. “What are those things worth? Like a billion dollars.” He sent a look to Yvette who honestly looked like she was about to throw up. 

“Yeah but we need ten million dollars right now to make the deal.” 

“Rhys there’s no way you can get that amount of money-” 

“Hold on.” Vaughn paused before a few digits appeared on his green glasses, and the words transfer complete. “Done.” 

“That was  _ really _ cool.” Rhys finally let a smile make its way onto his face. 

“I'm in finances it’s what I do.” Vaughn smirked, looking over at Yvette. 

“I’ve got the file, you’ve got the money, now all we need is a car.” Rhys grinned. “And I know where to get one.” Yvette didn’t even want to ask, but before she could say anything to derail them from their search, Vaughn clapped a hand on Rhys’ back. 

“Rhys, this is crazy.” Yvette was exasperated. She had to keep Rhys on Helios. 

“It’s not crazy. Its  _ Destiny _ .” Rhys grinned and again for a moment, he looked just like his old self, cold calculating eyes and a mind sharper than a buzz-axe. 

“Let’s go get a Vault Key, dude.” Rhys smiled at Vaughn, and they took off walking down the hallway. Rhys didn’t notice Vaughn turn around and flip Yvette off. 

She pulled out her echo and dialed one number. 

“We have a problem.” 

  
  



	3. The Deal

The flashy car sped through the desert, Rhys had hacked into the digistruct code for Vasquez’s car. It was a company car, standard issue for the position he usurped, Rhys had already been planning his car when everything went to shit, so it wasn’t hard to reroute the digistruct location and now as they sped through the barren pandoran landscape Rhys let the hot air whip through his hair with Vaughn at his side he couldn’t help but smile. 

“You look happy.” Vaughn noted as they rocketed through some scrublands. 

“I don’t know, man. There’s something about driving fast through the pandoran desert that’s just so freeing.” Rhys grinned, looking over at his bro. 

“I know what you mean.” Vaughn smiled, a warm feeling in his chest eclipsing the dread he felt left over from their altercation with Yvette. 

“It just feels right.” Rhys breathed, a smile stuck on his face. They sped past through the desert and were nearing the town when a dark form decided it would be a perfect time to sprint across the dirt road. 

“Shit!” Rhys slammed on the brakes but the car didn’t slow down fast enough and the car jolted to an abrupt stop after it rolled over the skag. 

“Holy freakin’ crap what was that?” Vaughn shouted, grabbing onto the armrest as the car slowed to a stop, its tail end swinging around. “What the fuck?!” 

“Why? Why on earth would you cross right there?!” Rhys groaned in frustration, his heart was racing as adrenaline lit up his nerves. The two men took a moment to calm down before Vaughn turned around to look at what they hit. It lay in a crumpled heap by the side of the road. 

“I think we… I think we _killed_ it.” Vaughn admitted, his brow furrowed with guilt. 

“Relax bro, I dont think it suffered. Besides, its a skag. Those things breed like hostile rabbits down here.” Rhys said as he laid his head back against the headrest, trying to catch his breath.

“Okay…” Vaughn was hesitant but he seemed to let it go as Rhys put the car back into drive and continued to the towns gates. 

Neither of them spent much time on Pandora but they knew a bandit town when they saw one. From the shambling buildings and piles of trash to the two psychos fighting over a dead body they could both tell that this was a place that civilization had failed to reach. 

“The trackers going crazy so we must be close, but I’m not seeing it anywhere.” Vaughn frowned, suddenly self conscious about the crazy amount of money he had chained to him. 

Before they left Vaughn managed to get them set up with a briefcase that was locked to Vaughns thumbprint and then handcuffed to his wrist so there wasn’t a risk of it being lost or stolen. 

“Do you want to just ask for directions?” Rhys arched an eyebrow. There was a guy cooking some form of meat on a stick with a stand that said “skag-kabobs”

“You really want to stop here?” Vaughn looked over at Rhys. 

“What could it hurt?” Rhys smirked as he found a safe place to park and turned off the car. 

“Uh we could both die horrible, bloody deaths at the hands of bandits.” Vaughn said dryly. 

“Then stay in the car.” Rhys shrugged as he opened his door and stepped out. 

“And let you get killed? No way bud.” Vaughn grumbled - mostly to himself - but got out of the car nonetheless. 

“Hey Rudiger, lemme get one of those!” another person asked as this skag-kabob guy handed over a skag-kabob. 

“Afternoon!” Rhys waved at the man behind the stand. “Can you tell me where the World of Curiosities is?” 

“Who wants to know?” The man growled in a low voice. Rhys had a feeling that every word that came out of his mouth was a growl. Jeez, did this guy gurgle marbles for breakfast? 

“Just a couple of tourists, looking to explore the Pandoran countryside.” Rhys chirped in a falsely enthusiastic voice. 

“Tourists, huh?” He cast a glance over the two of them, “You don’t look like tourists.” the man’s eyes caught on the Hyperion emblem on Rhys’ vest. “You look like _Hyperion_.” He said the last word with a tangible amount of disdain. 

“You Hyperion?” He stopped what he was doing to slam his meat cleaver down in the wood of the stand. “You assholes ruined this town.” The man scowled, moving closer. 

“We’re on a vacation.” Rhys tried to recover their raport when Rudiger noticed Vaughns briefcase. 

“What’s in the case little man?” A poor excuse for a smile spread on his face as he came around the stand to approach Vaughn. Before he could get within reach, Rhys put himself between the two of them, his arms crossed and a frown on his face. 

“We just need to know where the World of Curiosities is, then we’ll be on our way.” Rhys pressed. “There’s no need to get all bent-” Rhys trailed off when he saw a couple of unconscious forms on the ground started to get up. The door to the port-a-potty was kicked open and they were suddenly outnumbered. 

“- out of shape.” Rhys finished his sentence as they tried to edge back towards the car but there were more of them filling out a circle around them. “Oh crap…” 

“...bandits.”

\---

“What have you done?!” Yvette screeched at Vasquez. The remaining executives were gathered in what used to be hendersons office. 

“You asked me to take care of it! That’s what i did.” Vasquez scowled. 

“Killing Henderson did not take care of it.” Gracia snarled. “You have to fix this, Hugo!” 

“Rhys isn’t on Helios anymore.” Yvettes voice was low, but it sent all of the others into a panic. “Vaughn betrayed us and they just hit planetside.” She glared at Vasquez. “He stole your vault key deal.” 

“We have to take care of this!” Feathers exclaimed. “What are they doing there?! Does he know? He can’t know!” 

“It’s too soon for any memories to surface.” Jeffers provided, scanning over his notes for the memory procedure. “It’s been eight months since we locked them up. Unless he was triggered by something severe there’s no way for anything to escape that program for another three months.” 

“Rhys is beyond our reach now. There’s no telling what could trigger him down there. All of the information about the CEO’s trips to Pandora were classified. We have no idea what they did down there.” Hausman remarked. 

“We have to bring him back. There’s no question. Either he comes back to Helios alive or he dies on pandora.” Garcia turned her gaze to Vasquez. “And you will be the one to bring him back.” 

“Me? I was just doing what Yvette-” Vasquez stood up in anger 

“Save it!” Yvette snapped. She had worked too hard to let it all out of her grasp now. There was no way she was going to lose it all because of some hothead. “Your the one who made this mess you’re the one who can-” Yvette was cut off by her Echo comm going off. She opened it as a wavelength appeared with Rhys’ name above it. 

There was the sound of gunshots. “Yvette! We need a loaderbot!” 

“Already? Really!” Yvette sighed, trying not to let her anger leech into her words. 

“Now!” Rhys shouted, loud enough for the whole room to hear. “If you don’t give it to me I’ll just hack into requisitions myself.” Rhys snarled as the sound of gunshots and shouting got louder. 

“Okay fine! But be careful. These things are expensive.” 

“Give me the menu.” Rhys growled through his teeth. 

Yvette messed around on her echo for a moment before authorizing the Loaderbot. Rhys hung up without saying thank you.

“Why did you do that?” Feathers scowled at her as she put her comm away. 

“All Hyperion Loaderbots have a tracker in them. This way if Rhys gets out of range we’ll know were he is.” Yvette frowned slightly, “The money is fake, there's no way they can make the deal. It should buy us some time to find him.” 

“Smart move.” Vasquez praised with a sleazy smile. 

Yvette scowled at him. “Your shuttle leaves in half an hour. Don’t fuck this up.” She said curtly and turned on her heel, knocking a potted plant off of his desk as she went. 

\---

“Lets kill ‘em all!” Rudiger roared as more bandits appeared on the rooftops of nearby buildings. 

“Rhys! The bot! Prime it!” Vaughn shouted as they moved in closer. Rhys opened his palm interface and dialed Yvette, it didn’t take very long to connect. “Yvette! We need a loaderbot!” Rhys shouted. All at once they started shooting. Rhys ducked behind the limited cover of a small shipping crate while Vaughn went for a wall. 

“Already? Really?” Yvette sounded bored as she sighed. 

“Now!” Rhys had no patience for her bullshit right now. She had promised to help them, now she was going to make good on that promise. “If you don’t give it to me I’ll just hack into requisitions myself.” he threatened. 

“Okay fine! But be careful. These things are expensive.” Rhys resisted the urge to groan. Of course she was worrying about money and not about their lives. 

“Give me the menu.” Rhys growled through his teeth. It took a few moments before he was authorized and the loaderbot menu popped up. He programmed in the details he wanted quickly and gave the bot his location. 

There was a small flash of light from Helios and it only took a second for the bot to enter the atmosphere. 

“Guys c’mon we can talk about this!” Vaughn shouted as a chunk was blown out of his wall. 

There was a sharp whistle and a thunk heavy enough to rattle the sandy earth. Lucky for them the bot managed to land on a cluster of the bandits, splattering them against the sand. 

“Ooh, got quiet all of the sudden.” Rhys chuckled as the bot unfolded with a series of mechanical whirrs. 

“Hi.” The bot toned in its computer generated voice. Rudiger gave a growl before snapping his fingers and the shooting resumed. 

“Why isn’t it doing anything?” Rhys managed to hear Vaughns panicked shout over the metallic pings of bullets bouncing off of the bot. 

“Hold on!” Rhys opened the interface again and it showed him a view from the Loaderbot’s red eye. Rhys accessed the bots targeting systems and started picking of the bandits one by one before one of them dodged a spray of bullets and jumped up on his arm in order to fire at the Loaderbots eye. 

“Oh come on.” Rhys groaned and managed to knock off the bandit in order to shoot it. 

Rhys was so focused on killing the bandits that he didn’t see Rudiger grab the case and drag it and Vaughn through the sandy dirt until it was too late. 

He slammed the case in the driver side door leaving Vaughn on the outside as he started up the sports car. 

“Rhys!!” Vaughn shouted as the car sped off. 

“Loaderbot! Go get the car!” Rhys barked just in time for the loader bot to trundle on after it. Rhys took of running to follow it. They were nearing a bottleneck between two buildings when what looked like a pandoran school bus came screeching out of an alley and slammed hard into one of the buildings blocking their escape. 

Gun barrels stuck through the uneven gaps in the boards that were boarding up the shattered windows as Rhys stuttered to a halt behind loaderbot. 

Well Loaderbot took a giant leap and cleared the bus, leaving rhys unprotected in the spray of bullets. With a yelp he dove to the side. There was an alley that maybe he could get around to the other side if there weren’t any - _bandits_. 

Maybe the universe just hated him today because right as that thought crossed his mind three bandits dropped down from the tops of the buildings. One in a marauder mask charged him, an axe held in the air. Rhys side stepped him easily enough and drew back his fist to punch. 

As his flesh hand connected with the bandits face he let out a sharp yelp, fuck that _really_ hurt. It didn’t seem to hurt the bandit as much and he drew back to drive a punch into Rhys’ stomach knocking him backwards. 

Rhys was trying hard not to vomit when he spied something that had been knocked from his pocket. His stun baton. 

Yvette had seemed hesitant to let them take any weapons with them “It was just a business deal” but going to pandora without any weapons was suicide and since he didn’t own (or know how to use) a gun, he had swiped the digistruct code from requisitions and digistructed it along with the car. 

He grabbed it up before the bandit could recover his axe. Rhys hit the button and the baton extended with a crackle and bright blue sparks arching off of it. The moment it made contact with the bandit he was flung backwards with amazing force. 

“Holy shit.” Rhys grinned and turned around the face the other two bandits. 

He disposed of the first one easily enough with a quick tap in the chest, flinging him hard against the wall of the alley. But the third one had a considerable amount of armor. 

The first three hits did nothing and Rhys was grabbed up by a massive hand and shoved against the wall. His vision started to go splotchy with lack of oxygen and his legs kicked helplessly from where he was suspended above the ground. There was a tiny opening in the mask, just thin enough for the tip of the baton and without thinking Rhys plunged the stun baton right into this brutish bandits face. 

He screamed with a terrible sound and dropped Rhys who miraculously landed on his feet and scrambled up the ladder leading to the roof of one of the buildings. 

Rhys quickly scanned the surroundings. Loaderbot was being pelted with bullets as he held the car high above his head but there was no sight of vaughn. 

“Vaughn? Vaughn where are you?” Rhys shouted but a scraping metal noise commanded his attention over searching for his best friend and he turned to see Rudiger, brandishing his meat cleaver and advancing towards Rhys. 

“Where is Vaughn?” Rhys growled, holding his stun baton tight in his flesh hand. 

“How should i know? Your fuckin’ bot tossed us both out.” He raised his meat cleaver and Rhys touched his stun baton to Rudigers hand and it sent the cleaver flying and embedded it into one of the bandits that were shooting at Loaderbot. 

Rudiger eyed the baton and took a hesitant step back Rhys touched it against his chest and he went flying off of the roof, banging into another building and knocking down a piece of sheet metal that was blocking the sign, exposing the sign for the World of Curiosities. 

“That’s all i needed to know. We could have avoided all this.” Rhys smirked as he looked at loaderbot, the bandits were still shooting at him. “Loaderbot, put the car _down_.” 

“Okay.” Loaderbot toned as he dropped the car on the remaining bandits. 

“Rhys!” Vaughn shouted as Rhys dropped down onto the dusty earth. 

“It's over here, dude.” They jogged over to the entrance. Unfortunately it was barred and no matter how hard they shook the door it wouldn't budge. Before they could think of another thing to do, a large mechanical hand grabbed them both up and planted them on the other side. 

“Thanks, loaderbot.” Rhys smiled as Loaderbot gave them a thumbs up before another wave of bandits rushed him. 

One of them jumped onto his back and used a few of his buddies to tear his arm off while another blasted his leg off with a rocket launcher. 

“Why must the universe punish the good?” Loaderbot toned as he tried to shake the bandits off. 

“Just tell it to run Rhys!” Vaughn shouted, looking back at Rhys with his eyebrows drawn up. 

Rhys opened his palm interface and initiated the evacuate plan, lucky for them, whatever remaining bandits were swept away or blasted back when Loaderbot took off. 

“That was… horrifying!” Vaughn exclaimed, pushing up his glasses. “I never want to see someone's brains come out of their _nose_. Not ever again.” Vaughn shuddered. 

“Oh come on, Vaughn. It was a little fun, kicking those guys asses?” 

“Okay… it was a little fun,” Vaughn hesitated, “Let’s just get this deal over with and go home.” Vaughn said, hoping there would be a home to go back to when they were done with this. Probably not though, Yvette wasn’t going to let Rhys go so easily. 

“Good idea.” Rhys nodded and they turned towards the entrance of the building 

\---

“Rhys just went out of range!” Garcia stormed into Yvette’s office. 

“What?!” Yvette stood in her chair, knocking it over backwards. “What about the bot?” 

“There was a gunfight, the bot was damaged and then it evacuated the scene. The tracker was damaged before takeoff, even if it was still intact the bot is probably far away from Rhys. We have to move to plan b.” 

“We _can’t_.” Yvette frowned, glancing at her computer screen. “I’ve been monitoring his tracker all morning, Pandora is too far out of range for a system shutdown. The trackers only online for a few seconds at best and it doesn’t give us a specific location, we only get a generalized area.” He turned her computer screen so that Garcia could see the little diamond shape and the teal colored circle covering a massive area where Rhys may or may not be. 

“Prime it, when the signal is clear enough then execute it. It might not be strong enough to take him out the first time but enough hits and he’ll go down. Or it’ll knock him unconscious long enough for something on Pandora to kill him first.” Garcia ordered. Yvette scowled. 

“Get out of my office, Garcia. It’s been a long day.” 

\---

“This place is creepy, dude.” Vaughn looked around the hallway that was lined with stuffed pandoran wildlife. From bullymongs to skag skulls and even spiderants. Rhys cast a wary glance at a taxidermied rakk that was hanging from the ceiling. 

“I agree, let’s just find this August guy.” Rhys nodded as they made their way down the hallway. 

There was a man sitting in a chair at the end of the hallway, his mouth hanging open and a pair of sunglasses on. From afar it looked like he was just sleeping, except for the fact that he wasn’t breathing or snoring like a regular sleeping man would. 

“Okay, the stuffed animals is one thing but this… this is just sick.” Vaughn shuddered. 

They both flinched when a recorded voice started talking, “Right this way to the world famous hall of Pandoran Luminaries!” the recorded voice toned in a falsely chipper voice as a sign lit up in neon with an arrow pointing down the hall, “Witness how the planets icons met their grisly demise.” 

They hallway lights lit up one by one, each one shining on an exhibit. Vaughn and Rhys shared a look. 

“Let’s just get this over with.” Vaughn groaned before heading down the hallway. “I really hate this planet.” 

Rhys only nodded in agreement. 

So it turns out, that this “Hall of Pandoran Luminaries” was actually just a gross, dimly lit hallway with a row of stuffed dead people. 

The first was a small figure, decorated in scavenger armor. After that was a taller man with sunglasses and a straw hat. “Not the least bit insane.” The automated tour guide chimed. 

Rhys stopped in front of the third figure, something familiar about him. 

“Professor Nakayama!” The tour guide provided. 

“Oh i remember this guy, he was an asshole.” Rhys smirked, as the voice went on to talk about how he worked for Hyperion. But something glinting in the light caught Rhys’ attention. 

“Whoa, he still has his Hyperion ID chip!” Rhys realized with a start. Before Vaughn could stop him Rhys reached out and pulled it from around Nakayama’s neck.

“Hyperion pays big bonuses for reclaiming these things.” Rhys smirked and pocketed it. 

They had reached the door at the end of the hallways and Vaughn stepped up and pulled. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it was locked. 

“Son of a taint.” Rhys groaned to himself. It was a small expression, one that he had picked up somewhere a while ago. 

“Maybe there’s a key somewhere?” Vaughn said, looking around on the floor. 

“Yes, wouldn't that be convenient.” Rhys grumbled, “The key to the locked door just lying on the ground.” He let out a sigh and shrugged. “Well I don't have any other ideas.” 

The pair of them turned around and started walking back towards the entrance. As they did the automatic motion sensored lights flicked on and off as they passed the different taxidermied corpses.

As they walked down the hallway, the automatic lights of the exhibits flicking on and off, something very strange happened. They had been walking down the hallway and all of the exhibits had been filled but the one next to Nakayama was empty. 

“Wasn’t there a… guy right there?” Vaughn frowned, edging backwards when all of the sudden the not-so-taxidermied figure jumped out at them.

“Welcome to my World of Curiosities, how can I help you fine handsome gentlemen?” He put on a showman’s grin. 

“What the hell!?” Rhys shouted, “Are you pretending to be dead? What the fuck?” 

“No! Not pretending! 

“Just take us to the deal.” Rhys groaned, his patience wearing thin. 

“Of course! Right this way!” Shade said with another crooked, gap-toothed grin as he unlocked the door and led them through the innards of the git shop. 

They came out in a wide room that was missing most of the ceiling and at one side held a crumpled wall and some strange glowing Rock that Rhys figured was a pretty standard occupied by two people. 

One was a tall man with spiky blond hair and nose piercing and standing at his side was a woman shorter than him with. 

“You get stuck in traffic or what? Figured you Hyperion douchebags would at least be on time.” The blond man sneered as the pair entered the room. 

“We got a little side tracked, in case you didn’t hear the explosions outside.” Rhys spat. 

“Hold on where’s Vasquez?” August frowned, eyeing Rhys up and down. 

“He couldn’t make it. Asked us to come instead.” Rhys said, with a bored expression as he walked forward, Vaughn following behind. 

“We’ve got the money, you got the key?” He cast a glance at the woman standing behind August who was staring at him like she recognized him. 

August hesitated for just a moment, before sitting down at the table and producing a massive stainless steel briefcase with a heavy duty combination lock. 

“Okay, now show us the money.” 

~

“I’ve got a lock on him!” Garcia shouted, making the room of anxious executives jump out of their skin. “There’s just enough signal to get an area, but he's definitely there, and he’s not moving.” 

“Well what are you waiting for? Fire.” Yvette growled. Garcia hit the button for the moonshot canon. 

The beam took a few minutes to load up but once it was at full power there was no way Rhys could escape the damage. It was regrettable, to waste all of the time and energy on trying to erase his memories, only for him to have to be killed later. And with a moonshot canon no less. 

They should have been more careful, kept him within arms reach. Maybe they should have just locked him up. 

Maybe Garcia was right, maybe they should have just killed him from the beginning. 

But Yvette had been to naive and stupid to kill him then. Rhys was her friend, she didn’t want to kill him for no reason. Not even to elevate her place on the corporate ladder, to get ahead in the rat race. The whole station was in chaos after Jack’s death. They needed a leader, a real leader and Rhys just wasn’t it. He hadn’t earned his right to be at the top. He didn’t have to scrape and backstab his way to the throne. All he did was inherit it. In the form of a true monarch. 

But a full coup would have left everyone in outrage. 

The masses didn’t need to know that Yvette was running the show, they just needed to be fed some lies about a nervous breakdown and continue on with their jobs. 

Hyperion was nowhere near as productive without Jack at the helm, but they were still keeping things together. The seven of them were a team. 

Well, the six of them now. Henderson was dead. There was blood in the water, now it was just a matter of waiting to see which sharks were going to bite, and which ones were going to sink. 

~ 

“Show us the vault key.” Vaughn said, laying the briefcase on the table. 

“No, this is my deal, you’re gonna play by my rules. I thought I was going to be dealing with Vasquez and i get you two instead. Show me the fucking money, _then_ you’ll get to see the vault key.” 

“Vaughn, show him the money.” 

Vaughn cast a sideways glance at Rhys before opening the briefcase. 

And there before all of their eyes was ten million dollars of crisp Hyperion minted bills. 

August let out a low whistle and typed in to combination on the larger briefcase he had sitting on the table and suddenly the area was awash in beautiful purple light. 

Vaughn's eyes widened at the sight of it. 

Rhys' eyes landed on the vault key, he was mesmerized by it, how the lights seemed to glow as if it were breathing. But something about it was familiar. The same kind of familiarity that he'd felt when he had dreamed about Handsome Jack. Like Deja Vu. Like he had seen this before in another lifetime. 

The longer he stared at the vault key the more the feeling nagged at him and he was hit with a distinct feeling of _wrong._ Something was wrong with it in a way he couldn't put into words. 

Rhys frowned powering up his echo eye and just as he had a lock on it the case slammed shut. 

"I don't like this." Sasha had both hands planted on the lid of the case. 

"Sash what the hell?" August frowned. 

"You told me if I had a feeling I should tell you and the deal would be off. Well I've got a weird feeling." Sasha held onto the briefcase even as August tried to tug it out of her grasp. 

Rhys was still focused on the vault key, he had an incomplete lock on it when she shut the case so the readings were jumbled and static crossed his vision until two facts became perfectly clear. 

"We have to get out of here." Rhys stood up so fast he knocked his chair backwards. 

"What?" 

"We have to get out of here now!" Rhys broke the handcuff chain with his cybernetic hand and slammed the money case shut. "The money was bugged. Theres a fucking moonshot headed right for us!" Rhys grabbed Vaughn and took off sprinting for the exit. 

"What about the key?" Vaughn asked in panicked confusion. 

"Leave it! It's fake!" Rhys shouted as he ran towards a hallway that he prayed would let them out onto the street and not get them lost in another labyrinth of human taxidermy. 

They could hear it now, the sharp whistle of an incoming moonshot.

He heard Sasha and August make a run for the door before the deafening crash of the roof caving in upon impact of the cannon. 

The ground was shaking with the force of the impact. Rhys kept his hand on Vaughns arm as they sprinted down the maze of hallways until finally they saw light. 

They burst through the open door and they came out into an alleyway where a beat up looking caravan was parked at the mouth of it. 

Without saying a word, they both made a break for the caravan. 

~ 

Sasha stood in the open room next to August, the hyperion douchebag was late. August let out another long sigh for the millionth time. Jeez, Sasha could not wait until the deal was over. Then she could leave August’s dumb ass in the friggin dust and run off with five million dollars. 

It was a pretty sweet deal, trick some hyperion loser into buying a fake vault key, smooze august into letter her keep half of the ten mil and then she and Fiona can get off this rock for good. 

“Relax, babe. I’m sure he’s just running late trimming their butt hairs or something. You know how those corporate tools care so much about their appearance.” Sasha put a hand on August’s shoulder. The tension seemed to leave his shoulders at her touch. Vaults, he was pathetic. So wrapped up in this fake relationship he can’t even tell he was being scammed blind. 

“Vasquez better not waste anymore of my fuckin’ time. Or he’s gonna find himself with no vault key and hole in his fuckin’ head for all of his trouble.” August grumbled. 

The sound of an explosion outside rattled the floor. 

“Guess they’re here.” Sasha said with a smirk. 

After a few more minutes of waiting they heard muffled conversation and then out walked Shade, the owner of this freaky establishment and two obviously Hyperion stooges. 

One was tall with a bright yellow cybernetic arm and the other was shorter with glasses and he was handcuffed to a silver Hyperion-branded briefcase. 

There was something about the taller one that just rubbed Sasha the wrong way… she couldn’t explain it but something about him was _familiar_. It was totally going to bug the fuck out of her until she figured out what it was.

“You get stuck in traffic or what? Figured you Hyperion douchebags would at least be on time.” August grumbled, looking the pair up and down. 

“We got a little side tracked, in case you didn’t hear the explosions outside.” The tall one sneered. Sasha looked at August and noticed a peculiar expression on his face. 

“Hold on where’s Vasquez?” August frowned.

The taller one palmed the back of his neck, obviously trying to appear nonchalant, but Sasha could spot a fake from two miles away. “He couldn’t make it. Asked us to come instead.” 

“We’ve got the money, you got the key?” The tall one looked up, making direct eye contact with Sasha. 

Sasha heard August reach under the table and pull out the briefcase, but she was focused on his eyes. Something was wrong with them. They were mismatched, but there was something about the pairing of blue and brown, the cold mechanical gaze that stuck in Sasha’s brain. 

“Okay, now show us the money.” August laid his hand on the briefcase. 

“Show us the vault key.” The shorter one demanded as he set his own briefcase down on the table. 

“No, this is my deal, you’re gonna play by my rules. I thought I was going to be dealing with Vasquez and i get you two instead. Show me the fucking money, then you’ll get to see the vault key.” August growled, sneering at the pair of Hyperion douchebags. 

“Vaughn, show him the money.” The tall one waved his hand, catching the eye of his counterpart. The short one hesitated for only a moment and then he opened the briefcase. 

Sasha had never seen so much money in all of her life. It would be more than enough to set her and fiona up for life, not to mention pay their way off this vault-forsaken rock.

August looked equally mesmerized by the money as he typed in the code for the briefcase and suddenly the room was lit in the twirling purple light of the vault key. 

Sasha was less amazed with it, knowing it was fake. But it was still pretty, Felix had done a great job. Something metallic caught her eye and that's when she noticed the taller one staring at the vault key. 

He was frowning at it and in a split second Sasha saw the echo eye light up, and then she recognized him. 

Rhys Lawrence. The not-so-future CEO of Hyperion. Handsome Jack's only successor. 

She thought he was dead. 

He was going to scan the key. He was going to scan the key and realize it was a fake. He probably already knew. He had probably seen a real vault key before. 

In a moment she slammed her hand down on the lid for the case, disrupting the tentative peace of the deal. 

“I don’t like this.” She said suddenly, a feeble attempt at trying not to alarm anyone. 

“Sash, what the hell?” August looked up at her with a frown 

“You told me if I had a feeling I should tell you and the deal would be off. Well I've got a weird feeling." Sasha rambled because Rhys was still looking at the briefcase. Dammit this thing should have been scan-proof. They were going to blow this deal wide open and then Sasha could say goodbye to her ten million dollars and a way off this rock. 

Plus if August found out he’d been sold a fake vault key, that was going to open up another can of worms that Sasha did not want to deal with. 

“We have to get out of here.” Her spiralling was interrupted by Rhys. 

“What?” Sasha and August replied at the same time. 

“We have to get out of here now!” He stood up, reaching for the chain that was locking his friend to the briefcase. "The money was rigged. Theres a fucking moonshot headed right for us!" Rhys grabbed his friend and took off running.

“What about the key?” The short one called out as he cast a woeful glance at the vault key. 

“Leave it! Its fake!” Rhys shouted before they disappeared through an open door back into the tourist trap. 

Sasha met eyes with August, before grabbing the handle of the case and whacking him with it. It was enough to daze him, but that was about it. However, it did give Sasha enough time to sprint through a hole in the wall as the sharp whistle of the canon got louder. 

She could hear August shout her name, but she didn’t think he was chasing her. She ran down a hallway, taking a sharp turn and running full force into Fiona. 

“Sasha!” Fiona shouted as she picked her sister up off the floor. 

“I know, I’m fine, but we gotta go.” The two of them took off running towards the exit Fiona had come from. The impact literally shook the ground as the were running. 

They pair let out into a side alley, where Fiona had been hiding out listening to the deal. After it was made they were supposed to let the Hyperion douchebags run off with a useless vault key and swap briefcases with August. 

They stood panting in the alley, their caravan was parked around the corner, but they needed a minute to catch their breath. 

“What the hell was that?” Fiona exclaimed. 

“I don’t know! Maybe August set us up! Maybe Hyperion found out. I don’t know!” Sasha was exasperated. It was supposed to be a straightforward deal. Classic bait and switch. 

Sasha was leaning up against the wall when something else caught her eye and she caught it out of the air. It was a slip of paper.

In fact, at first glance it looked an awful lot like the Hyperion Minted bills that had been in that briefcase. But Sasha knew a fake when she saw it. This was not real money. 

“Those fuckers!” Sasha shouted, holding up the money so Fiona could see. 

More of it was floating down now, and it was all the same. Obvious fakes, they didn’t even have serial numbers. 

“Look, this is alot to upcak right now, but I think we should get out of here before August decides to call for some backup.” Fiona let the bills fall out of her hand and she motioned in the direction of the caravan.

Sasha nodded and they both went running for the caravan. 

Fiona threw open the door, hoping to make a speedy escape when lo and behold, there were the runaway Hyperion douchebags with a handful of wires trying to hotwire their caravan.

“It’s not what it looks like!”


End file.
